Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has won a lawsuit it brought against Australia's eSafety Commissioner after the Federal Court found on Wednesday that the company does not need to follow a new safety standard for harmful online content.

X Corp sued eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in May 2025 and argued social media platforms did not need to abide by the Relevant Electronic Services Standard (RES Standard), which the commissioner has enforced since mid-2025.

'Relevant electronic services' typically contain online messaging, email, or gaming capabilities, and X's lawyers argued social media platforms, including X, were unfairly caught up by the standard because they typically allow users to message each other.

X successfully argued it could not be designated under Australia's Online Safety Act as both a 'social media service' and a 'relevant electronic service', with Justice Elizabeth Raper writing that the RES Standard therefore "does not apply" to X, which both parties agreed is a social media platform.

In a statement to Information Age, eSafety said it acknowledged the court's decision and will consider its next steps.

It is unclear if the regulator will appeal the court's decision.

“X is required to comply with the social media services code under the Act and eSafety will continue to prioritise its efforts to ensure all platforms and services meet their obligations under the Online Safety Act to address seriously harmful content to keep Australians safer online,” a spokesperson said.

X did not apply for its legal costs to be paid, and both it and its legal team were contacted for comment.

'I accept X Corp's characterisation'

While eSafety's lawyers argued the Online Safety Act does not preclude a service from falling within more than one category of digital service, Justice Raper did not accept this argument and said the legislation is "founded on these siloed characterisations" of online platforms.

"I accept X Corp’s characterisation of the facts that the RES Standard has been made by the commissioner ... as a standard applicable to participants in a different section of the online industry, that are specified... as 'providers of relevant electronic services'," she said.

"The commissioner’s construction would not sit comfortably with the Act’s structure.

"It would allow the commissioner, as has happened here, to create a standard and apply it to a provider who is already the subject of another industry sector code and effectively bypass the consultative industry-led model."

The RES Standard contains rules for dealing with content containing child sexual exploitation, violence, drugs, and pro-terror material.

Digital platforms see the standard as more burdensome in some ways than the Social Media Services Online Safety Code (SMS Code), which was co-developed by the online industry (including X) and which eSafety has directed some platforms to transition away from.

A spokesperson for eSafety said the RES Standard "remains valid and enforceable", despite the court finding X was not covered by the standard.

"The court did not make a finding that the RES standard is invalid, as sought by X Corp," they said.

The Australian legal firm representing X Corp, Thomsons (Formerly Thomson Geer), wrote in a letter to the eSafety Commissioner's office in December 2024 that it would potentially "take legal action" over the RES Standard.

The online regulator told X Corp at the time that it needed to comply with the standard, under which companies can face penalties of up to $49.5 million for breaches.

X and eSafety's legal battles

There have been several legal battles between X Corp and the eSafety Commissioner's office since Musk purchased Twitter in April 2022.

The Federal Court ordered X to pay a penalty of $650,000, as well as $100,000 in legal costs in May 2026 for failing to fully comply with a 2023 transparency notice about how it handles child abuse material on its platform.

The company had unsuccessfully argued that it did not need to comply with content transparency notices that had been sent to Twitter, as the Twitter brand no longer exists.

Inman Grant, who worked for Twitter between 2014 and 2016 as a director of public policy, ordered X to remove graphic footage of a Sydney bishop's stabbing in April 2024, which was somewhat successful but was challenged by X before the request was dropped by the regulator in June of that year.

Musk and X have also drawn criticism from Australian politicians and regulators over non-consensual sexual images posted on the platform which were generated using X's generative AI tool Grok.

X was earlier criticised when Grok published a series of anti-Semitic posts to the platform in July 2025, after having its software altered to reduce what it called "the woke filters".

Musk has also previously described the Australian government as “fascists” for proposing laws against the spread of misinformation.